PR and marketing trends for 2018 – what will the new year bring?

As one of the fastest moving industries on the planet, there are always a lot of predictions about what the future of PR and marketing looks like.

This year we thought we’d throw our two-penneth in, being as we’re in the game so to speak!

So, this is what we think will dominate the landscape over the next 12 months.

Continued rise of video content

Good video is one of the most compelling ways to tell a story. As far back as 2015 (yes, that far), it was considered by many to produce the biggest ROI of any content type. And with the price of video coming down, we see can only see its popularity increasing.

Influencer marketing

There has been shift away from using celebrities to market products, which threatens to leave a lot of them out of work, in favour of influencers. Because influencers naturally evangelise about your product or brand, they are more believable than celebs, and create a more powerful connection with your audience. Usually, they’re cheaper too, so it’s a win win!

Greater integration

It’s not secret that the lines between PR, marketing, SEO, advertising and content generation have become blurred in recent years. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, better integration leads to joined up strategies. On the other, who owns what nowadays? And how many toes is it possible to step in any one day, anyway? Like it or loathe though, integration is here to stay, and it’s only going to get better (or worse!).

More creativity

As audiences become more and more wise to our tricks, winning their attention becomes harder. There’s only one thing for it … get ya thinking caps on and come up with great campaign ideas. Otherwise they’ll pay you no attention, which let’s be honest, is what we crave most.

Increased in paid media

Facebook demonstrated earlier this year with its explore feed experiments that it is constantly looking for ways to increase revenues from companies. Expect organic reach to reduce further as the major social channels compete for your cash.

Artificial Intelligence

Okay, so this has been whispered about for a long time, but now people are no longer speaking in hushed tones. Artificial Intelligence will take over some of the more mundane tasks in PR and marketing, further increasing automation. But the best stories are and always will be driven by and about people, so wherever the technology takes us, the industry will always need the human touch. The AI revolution will give us more time to do what it can’t … think creatively.

Those are our six predictions for the new year. Why not let us know yours?